Response papers.

From time to time throughout the semester I will be assigning short response papers, basically a 300– to 600–word response to one of the assigned texts.

What I will be looking for in these papers is:

1. evidence that you read the text: a brief summary (no longer than a paragraph) of what the text is about, with some attention to who wrote it and why. If it is a secondary source (as in assignments 3 and 4—see below), identifying the author’s thesis and argument would be useful.
2. evidence that you thought about how the text enhances or complicates our understanding of narrative in a given time and place. This should form the bulk of the paper.
3. good writing.

Within these parameters, you can go in any direction you want with these papers. If the text makes you think about gender roles, religious practice, the politics of the time, or contemporary Asian society (just to give a few examples), please write about it. I am hoping that these papers will stimulate your thinking about different aspects of narrative and that this will deepen your understanding of Indian, Chinese, and/or Japanese culture and society.

If you have further questions about writing response papers, you might visit the HWS Writes website (http://www.hws.edu/academics/ctl/hws_writes.aspx).

Assignments.

1. Asvaghosha, The Buddha-Karita, trans. E. B. Cowell, in The World of Literature, ed. Louise Westling et al.(New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1999), 265-288; due Wednesday, Sept. 13.
   
   
2. Āryaśūra, Once the Buddha Was a Monkey: Ārya Śūra’s Jātakamālā, trans. Peter Khoroche (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 58-73; due Friday, Sept. 22.
   
   
3. W. G. Archer, The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry (New York: Grove Press, 1960), 26-71; due Wednesday, Nov. 1.
   
   
4. Sing-chen Lydia Chiang, “Visions of Happiness: Daoist Utopias and Grotto Paradises in Early and Medieval Chinese Tales,” Utopian Studies 20, no. 1 (2009): 97–120; due Wednesday, Nov. 8.

Format for written work:
Please follow these guidelines when you write your papers.

1. Type all work in a 12-point font.
2. Double-space.
3. Leave one-inch margins on all sides.
4. Number your pages.
5. Put your name and the date on the first page.
6. Check that your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct—these are crucial to effective communication of your ideas. Your grade will drop if you have excessive errors.
7. If you cite another source, you must use a.) parenthetical references or footnotes, and
   b.) a list of works cited, as explained in The Chicago Manual of Style (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html), the documentation style typically used by art historians. (See A note about cheating and plagiarism below.)
8. Include pictures (with captions) of works of art that you discuss.

You can submit written work via Canvas. Please upload a Microsoft Word document (.doc, .docx), Rich Text Format file (.rtf), or a Portable Document Format file (.pdf): these are the only formats that Canvas will accept. Alternatively, you can turn in a stapled hard copy to me during the class period. PLEASE NOTE: I do not accept papers via e-mail.

A note about cheating and plagiarism:
I will not tolerate any form of academic dishonesty. It destroys the trust that I have in you to do your best, it is unfair to the other students, and obviously you will not learn anything if you resort to cheating. If I find that you have cheated or plagiarized on a test or on a written assignment, you will receive a zero for the assignment and I will contact the Deans and/or the Committee on Standards about your case. If a case goes to the Committee on Standards, I follow the Committee's recommendation; if it also finds evidence of cheating or plagiarism, the recommendation is usually failure of the course at a minimum.

In accordance with the Colleges’ Principle of Academic Integrity and General Academic Regulations (http://www.hws.edu/catalogue/policies.aspx) and the Handbook of Community Standards (http://www.hws.edu/studentlife/pdf/community_standards.pdf), p. 15, I define cheating as giving or receiving assistance on any assignment for this course, including all papers and tests, except as directly authorized by me. The Colleges define plagiarism as “the presentation or reproduction of ideas, words, or statements of another person as one’s own, without due acknowledgment.” In application, this means that in any written assignment, you need to cite your sources. When quoting directly from a text—say, five words or more in succession—you need to put those words in quotation marks and include a parenthetical reference or footnote citing the source. When rewriting a passage from a text in your own words, you don’t need the quotation marks but you do still need the parenthetical reference or footnote. In addition, all sources that you cite need to be included in a list of works cited at the end of the assignment. If you don’t understand exactly what constitutes plagiarism, or how to use parenthetical references or footnotes, please ask me. I would prefer to explain what it is and how to avoid it before it happens rather than after.